interference through alpine head unit ? ? ?

[toptints]

Has anyone ever had a whiring noise through their radio etc.. that rises with the engine noise ? i'm running an alpine phantom face headunit with three amps. I have even tried running power from the big positive block under the bonet, and running a massive fat earth lead to the headunit from a good earth point, and i still have this noise and it's driving me crazy ! i can get rid of it by turning the stereo right up and it overides the noise.

[Ziggy]

Mine (kenwood) has just started doing it & I was about to post a thread about it! Has been absolutely fine until the other day but it's blimmin annoying now! Anyone?

[smithy318i]

it could be:

Cheap crappy phono leads with poor shielding.

the phono leads are too close to the + wire.

[Ziggy]

Neither of those have changed in my case...
It seems to be slightly intermittent - I think it fixed itself briefly at one point yesterday! It's there virtually all the time though - as long as the engine's running. Loose connection somewhere? But where's it likely to be?

[placey]

toptints - 3 amps eh. what have you done to increase the amount of current generation to allow your motor to cope with that lot?

jon - i think the clue to both your answers lies in the fact that it's just started with your setup - something is wearing out/not working as well as it was. i'd immediately suspect the battery and/or alternator (especially given the time of year)

have you access to a spare and known good alternator you can fit and try? and likewise with a battery? have you got a meter out and taken some readings. i suspect your setups are not receiving sufficient clean current.

and toptints - have you isloated each amp in turn to ascertain whether it's a part of your system playing up or not?

paul

[Ziggy]

Cheers Paul, turned out to be a dodgy connection inside one of my amps!

I've just taken it out for now, but I'll get the soldering iron out later...

[mybmw6]

I have had the same issue. I have triple shielded RCA leads so I don't think its to do with them. My noise is on even when the engine isn't running/on (I have direct power going to my deck with a switch). It frustrates me to no end!!!! I just finished making a dual sub enclosure, bought another amp for it and I can't even use the stupid thing! I've got another amp kit coming that should give me some more freedom running my cables away from each other. When I have time I am going to check my deck is earthed properly, move my power cables apart and away from other cables, I'll make sure I have a good earth in the boot and then test each component one by one. I'll let you know if I come across anything (or fix my issue). I am determined to remove all interference from my speakers... one day....

[amit325i]

If its coming when the radio is on, then your aerial cable may have been earthing on the body somewhere, amp give problem also if they are not mounted properly, you should aviod mounting amps directly on to metal.

Also a headunit does not need fat cables for it work properly especially if everything is running off an amp. The earth point is somewhere under the dash trace it undo the nut and clean it up with some sand paper if it needs it.

[mybmw6]

So after going over every electrical component in my car with a fine tooth comb it turns out that it was a dodgy head unit.... EBAY - buyer beware! WARNING - Justcheaperstuff (ebay id) sells crappy car audio equipment!!! I was lucky enough to have two decks. I couldn't tell it was the deck at first because there was other interference that I got rid of (dodgy earth), but then after fixing this I found one deck had interference and the other didn't (boy was it fun swapping the decks over each time to test my theories ) If you have tried everything else, see if you can borrow a friends deck (doesn't have to be anything special) and swap it over. Hope it helps